Whitehead continues the story of Ray Carney from Harlem Shuffle, while also showing us more about engaging characters like Pepper and a certain arsonist-turned-filmmaker. Very enjoyable and sets up well for what will be the final volume in the trilogy.
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An English prof in New England. Most of my reading is re-reading for class, but when reading for myself I enjoy challenging and unusual reads, often with fantastic, sci-fi, or postmodern elements.
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snowka finished reading The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
snowka finished reading Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead
snowka reviewed Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead
snowka wants to read Liberation Day by George Saunders
snowka wants to read Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead
snowka finished reading Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
Whitehead is quite good at drawing you into his character's situations. His historical fiction describes the lives of Black characters in the U.S., from the enslaved characters in Underground Railroad to the reform-school menagerie of The Nickle Boys, to the life of Ray Carney, 1960s furniture salesman and part-time crook, in Harlem Shuffle. Starting the story is a bit of an investment--a legit furniture salesman is not the most promising dramatic focus--but that investment pays off. Carney is a character you want to meet and understand, and you'll want to follow him to the soon-to-be-released sequel, Crook Manifesto.
snowka finished reading Last Suspicious Holdout by Ladee Hubbard
A collection of 13 short stories about African American life in the United States between 1992 and 2007. There are some characters that reoccur in different stories, which allows for more character development than is often possible in the short story genre. For me, though, the power was in the stories as free-standing works of their own. These are unsparing stories of people in unfair situations that they often do not fully understand but which the reader perceives through the dramatic irony that Hubbard creates so well. Read the first story, "The Flip Lady (1992)," and it will surprise you. If it has you intrigued, you'll want to keep reading up to and through the longest of the collection, "The Last Suspicious Holdout (2001)," to find out what's been going on in the Leon Moore Center for Creative Unity and Byrdie's Burgers.
snowka wants to read The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad …
snowka wants to read Victory City by Salman Rushdie
Victory City by Salman Rushdie
A 247-year-old demi-god chronicles the birth and death of Bisnaga, a city she created and occasionally ruled.
A postcolonial, antiracist Harry Potter
4 stars
Kuang's story surprises. This coming-of-age (and coming-of-revolution) story introduces us to a world where the the 19th-century Industrial Revolution is made possible not by steam and worker oppression but by the magical powers of translation and colonial exploitation. The experiences of the protagonist, a Cantonese boy that adopts the English name Robin Swift, lead us to an imagined Oxford that is as intriguing as Hogwarts but that has sins that Kuang not only does not whitewash, but makes the centerpiece of her novel. The historical notes and especially the etymological explanations are fascinating, if occasionally pedantic. Once you get your head around this world and how it works, you'll want to hang on to the end to see how a postcolonial critique during the height of the British Empire can possibly turn out.
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang
Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, …
snowka reviewed Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada
Three connected short stories about exotic fish, weasels, and the mysteries of having a child
Originally published individually between 2012-2014, these three short stories titled "Death in the Family," "The Last of the Weasels," and "Yukiko" feature a couple struggling to have a child. This struggle is figured and explored in three strange dinner parties with friends and acquaintances. As with Oyamada's other stories, animals have great significance for the humans , but in these the there are more metaphors than actual transformations. As always, you can never guess where Oyamada's storytelling is taking you.
snowka reviewed The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada
A surprising satire of working life in contemporary Japan
3 stars
Like the other works of hers that I've read, The Hole and Weasels in the Attic, Oyamada begins by easing readers into the situations of her characters. Before long, though, their worlds begin to unravel. Following four characters in their strange occupations on the enormous campus of an unnamed factory, Oyamada builds suspense as questions about the factory mount and the surreal becomes more and more real.